


Knocking At The Door

by GoldenEyedFury



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Animagus Harry Potter, Character Death, Creature Fic, F/M, Garden Gnomes, Halloween Costumes, Kid Fic, Kidfic, Parent!Harry, Parent!Hermione, Post War, Trick or Treating, garden gnome abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-01 22:17:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16292825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenEyedFury/pseuds/GoldenEyedFury
Summary: Harry dropped his cloak and exploded upward into an eight foot tall black Jaguar. Darker rosettes adorned his plush fur, his eyes remained the same vivid emerald.“I’d hate to kill you Kings,” the jaguar said coolly, “But you scared my kids and that's unforgivable.”





	Knocking At The Door

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
> Harry and Hermione take their kid(s) trick or treating in the muggle world. I would like to see the kids(s) reactions to the costumes.  
> +1 is good too.
> 
> _______  
> This piece was written for Something Wicked This Way Comes, a Harmony & Co Halloween One-Shot Competition. All canon characters, plots, dialogue, and situations from the Harry Potter series belongs to JK Rowling. I am not profiting from this work.

**_Tuesday October 31st, 1:00 pm, 13℃ moderate rain_ **

A large black dog trotted through the cemetery, water dripped from his wiry coat plastering it to his sides. Three years of freedom put some muscle on him but twelve years in Azkaban and two months within the veil left their mark. He was lean and covered in scars. Some were faded and barely noticeable. However the thick pink scar that cut through his left eye stood out. He fit in amongst the Tombstones and dreary weather perfectly. 

Godric’s Hollow was quiet. Its residents would never forget the night Voldemort murdered James and Lily Potter. They could not forgive themselves for not rushing to their aid. When the nursery exploded and the screams of a baby echoed through the cold night they huddled in their homes; and did nothing. Harry Potter’s loss bought them fifteen years of peace, and a lifetime of guilt. 

Voldemort's final defeat three years ago was met with rapidly clashing opinions. Many believed that he and the Defense Association had gone too far. Others that he should have ended the war sooner! 

The Golden Trio united their entire year of classmates, plus several in the years above and below them and travelled six years into the past. Upon their return to the present Sirius Black was with them! Alive and seemingly well despite his missing eye. Yet another mystery they refused to divulge.

No one, not even the Ministry, knew how they did it; they all refused to speak of it. When pressed they arranged themselves on the steps of Gringotts and vowed on their magic to never reveal how they time travelled to anyone outside the Defense Association.

The introduction of the Potter-Black children, plus all of the D. A’s children was only slightly less of a shock. Well, their appearance was easily explainable. When an entire generation goes to war, casualties are to be expected and heirs were produced. Birth records were fuzzy and parentage boggling.  _ Malfoy and a Weasley?!  _ But as the trials of convicted Death Eaters dragged on belated birth, and in some cases marriage announcements became a source of comfort. That they all chose to continue living together after the war was puzzling.

So when Harry and his family walked through the Village, they gave him space and let him visit his parents graves unmolested. He had more than earned it.  No longer was Potter Cottage a tourist attraction masquerading as a Historical Monument. But neither Harry nor Hermione could bring themselves to live in it full time. 

Harry watched his Godfather weave his way through the graveyard. Rain pattering on his shoulder. Hermione’s arm looped through his own. She held their umbrella on her opposing shoulder, sheltering Teddy and the twins. 

Not that Orion or Astra cared if they got wet. At seven years old they kept themselves away from the puddles by sheer force of will. Plus the promise of spending the evening in London proper. Going trick or treating for the first time ever was a huge deal. 

James held his own umbrella, a bright orange monstrosity that he picked out himself. Just like he picked out the costumes that they would be wearing later. All of them. Including Padfoot, who was far too jolly about the whole thing. Halloween would forever be bittersweet for Harry, but it didn’t have to be for his children.

_ The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. _

The words jarred him every time he saw them. As the Master of Death it stirred something deep within him, like a cry over a battle, it was noticed and swallowed. He didn’t have time to ponder it, nor did he want to. He had more than enough on his plate as it was. But still they rang inside. One day Harry would have to face those words and what exactly they meant. But not this day. No, this day was for honoring his parents sacrifice and thanking them for being brave enough to do so. 

Sirius sat before the headstone and fought the urge to whine. James wrapped an arm around him and for a second Sirius was a kid again. He closed his eyes and could almost feel the Hogwarts express rumbling underfoot. Could hear Lily smack James upside the head and call him a toerag. For a moment the world was right and his best friends alive. James squeezed his shoulder and he was suddenly back in his fur. 

The wind shifted bringing with it the scent of flowers as the rain let up. It swirled around them tightly and surprisingly warm. Harry smiled.

“Hullo Mum, Hullo Dad.”

~oOo~

 

**_Tuesday October 31st, 6:25 pm, 11℃ light rain_ **

Colors and children and laughter. Everywhere he looked people were oohing and awing at him. It was raining but he didn’t care. Teddy smiled; standing at the bow of his ship and steering it with one hand and waving his feathery hat with the other. His shimmery coat was bright red,  _ bloody red _ he had heard Uncle Ron say before Mummy smacked him. It was charmed to be warm and dry. The whole ship was! Even below decks was comfy and cozy. It had a table and chairs and left over supper. Uncle Ron was down there eating Daddies chicken pot pie. 

Daddy didn’t cook much, but when he did it was always super yummy. He liked when Daddy made breakfast on sunday mornings. (Winky and the other elves didn’t) but the whole house smelled of eggs, bacon and sausages, it was always a race to be the first one down. Teddy always won. No other kid had his nose. He won at hide and seek lots too, but he wasn’t allowed to be IT very much. 

A pack of wolfman pups ran past the ship, hooting and hollering, almost running Padfoot over. Teddy wanted to growl at them. That was  _ not _ what werewolves looked like! A werewolf would never ever run over their pack mate. He could show them what a real werewolf looked like, then they wouldn’t think it was so funny.

Padfoot huffed at him and teddy looked away from the kids. Padfoot raised a dark eyebrow and wagged his tail. Making the costume wiggle. He was dressed as two pirate dogs carrying a treasure chest. Tongue lolling Padfoot smiled at him and Teddy relaxed. 

Mummy had told him that the muggles didn’t know about magic or that magical creatures were existed. They couldn’t see the real ship either. They only saw a wooden wagon dressed up like a ship, with a sheet tied to the mast. But Teddy knew the truth, and any wixen they passed would also see a real ship shrunken down with wheels attached to it. 

It was very important that he not do any kind of magic. No changing his hair color, shooting off sparklers or shifting. The last part was the hardest. Teddy wanted nothing more than to howl and prance around with his nose to the ground. The entire street smelled so good! 

Teddy was the Captain, the leader and it was his job to set an example. Or at least that was what Daddy told him when he put on the red coat. So he couldn’t shift and run around the street, but he could run on two feet and get candy! 

“Release the plank!” he bellowed, making several people turn and look and Mummy giggle. 

“Aye, aye cap’n!” Mummy lifted the sides of her dark dress, crossed her ankles and bent her knees. 

Teddy couldn’t remember what it was called, but it was how ladies bowed. He liked being bowed at. Smacking his feather hat back onto his head Teddy drew his sword, propped a black boot onto the side of his ship and pointed it at his brothers and sister. 

“Landlubbers!” he roared, “Tonight we pevage!”

“Pillage, Teddy. And remember it’s pillage first,  _ then _ burn.”

Mummy lowered the plank, offered her hand and helped him down. James and Orion bowed at the waist, their feathery hats in hand. Astra copied Mummy’s lady bow in their almost matching costumes. Different only because Mummy’s dress had a gold vest over her tummy that laced up and Astra’s didn’t. They fell in behind him. A twin at each side and James taking up the rear. Padfoot barked excitedly and took off up the lawn to the house. 

A group of kids were already at the door, some were the wolfman pups, another was a ghost, and yet another a clown. Teddy did not like clowns. Eyes wide he stumbled a step and suddenly Daddy was there. His warm hand wrapping around Teddy’s cold one.

His costume was similar to Teddy’s, a white billowy shirt tucked into dark trousers and tall black boots that folded over at the top. But instead of a red coat Daddy had a glittery gold sash.  Teddy was pretty sure that Daddy’s sword was real, he and his siblings had plastic ones but Daddy’s gleamed when the streetlights hit it. 

Holding Daddy’s hand made the clown a little bit less scary and with a deep breath he took a step forward. Teddy picked up his courage step by step. When it came time to pass the clown Teddy didn’t even look at him. He was a captain, and if he was afraid so would his crew be. Plus Daddy made it hard to be anything but brave, with him Teddy didn’t have anything to be worried about. 

Daddy’s hand tightened on his. It hurt, Teddy tried to tell him but a green light flashed and Daddy roared.

~oOo~

“No!” Hermione screamed and flung herself at her babies. All around her muggles ran, screeching and crying. Her vision tunneled. Too slow, she was moving too slow! Spells hurtled at her children, reds and purple, one a sickening green. Her heart stopped. She wouldn’t get there in time. Red and blue flashed and she scooped up a sunbathing garden gnome. Spinning on her heel she shot-putted the gnome at the idiot attacking her children.

Harry spun, lifting Teddy and diving over the older kids. Spells thudded into his back, missing the kids entirely. The gnome hit the cloak square in the face. She could breathe again. 

Cracks of apparition echoed all over the street. Wixen in dark cloaks and masks flung curses the instant they appeared. Sirius snarled and charged, hitting one like a tank and ripping his throat out with a wet squelch. 

Muggles dropped like flies all across the emptying street. She couldn’t protect them and her children. Sirens wailed in the distance. Harry slammed a shield into place around the kids and raised an eyebrow at his wife. 

“What did the gnome ever do to you?” Sirius grinned, bits of flesh caught in his teeth.

“Shut up, at least I didn’t put part of a stranger in my mouth!” Hermione growled, “You don’t even know where he's been.”

Sirius barked a laugh, “That's not the worst thing I've had in my mouth, Doll.”

Hermione rolled her eyes and shot down a cloak. 

Ron burst out of the bowels of the ship, shifting as he charged. A monsterous badger thundered toward Harry and threw himself in front of the shield, “Who are these wankers?”

“Language Ron! Level six ambush, at least twelve unknowns, possibly more inbound. Call the troops!”  Hermione snarled as she flicked a knee reversal hex at a charging cloak.

They screamed and fell. Ron rolled a galleon across his black and white knuckles, it glowed for a second and disappeared.

“Oi! Here we are,” Ron cut the legs out from under a cloak. “Bloody being attacked and you harp on my swearing? Honestly woman do you know me?”

“Bombarda!” Another cloak went down screaming. Harry silenced him with a well placed cutting curse.

Halloween decorations twinkled merrily all around them as they surrounded the shield and children within it. Bodies littered the lawn and sidewalk; some whole others in pieces. Blood stained the ground, too much for the smattering of rain to wash away. 

“Do I know you?! Ronald Bilius Weasley I swear on all that is holy I’ll kill you. Okay? I will kill you.” Hermione snapped her arm forward and a whip of flames shot out of her wand. She jerked and the flames wrapped around a cloak. Setting them ablaze, again her arm snapped and another went up. The smell of burnt hair and sizzling meat filled the night. 

“How about,” Harry rolled under a curse, “We fight the cloaks and not each other?” 

Harry’s cloak burst into bubbles, and Sirius barked a laugh as his cascading jinx caught sent four cloaks flying. Ron cast an entrail-expelling curse as he dodged a stunner. 

The sirens drew closer, they were running out of time. 

Six rapid pops of apparition sounded off as fiendfyre burst across the street. Chimeras and phoenix's rose within the flames and crashed into the back of the cloaks. The gangs all here.

The cloak hermione nailed with the gnome stirred and staggered to his feet. She hit him with an Incarerus and stunned him. Dragging him to the side of a somehow untouched wagon she tied him to a wheel. How long had they been under surveillance?  Long enough apparently. This street wasn’t their first stop, it wasn’t even their third. No matter. Her captive would answer their questions.

~oOo~

 

**_Wednesday November 1st, 2:13 am, 9℃_ **

Autumn in Devon was beautiful. The trees were a mix of reds and oranges, the air was crisp and cool. It wasn’t even raining. A perfect night for a stroll, maybe enjoy a glass or two of wine, a romp on the beach. It was late and with none around who’d ever know? 

Kingsley Shacklebolt lived in a predominantly muggle neighborhood. For most wixen the location alone would give them pause. Who would want to risk exposure? Neither Harry nor Hermione were worried.

Clearly Kingsley wasn’t either. He met them in the yard. French doors open and warm light spilling out between white curtains. He wore his favorite purple robes and had the gall to smile at them. As if he hadn’t planned their capture or possible murders.

“Beautiful night isn’t it?”

“I certainly thought so earlier, even with the rain it was more than nice enough for an evening out with the family.” Harry said sharply, “Imagine how things changed.”

“We had a plan Kingsley. And you threw it all away.” Hermione giggled, eyes flashing red as spotted fur rolled up her arms. “You fought beside us, we were content to take it slow and let you live.”

She ran her tongue over her snout and jaws, letting it loll as she giggled again and began to grow. How a five foot four woman became a seven foot anthropomorphic hyena eluded him. But Kingsley knew then that he made a grave mistake. 

“We were content you see,” Harry padded across the lawn utterly silent. His cloak billowing in his wake and magic stirring. “All of us have children, and with a competent Minister we believed that we could take it slow. Raise our children in peace and ease ourselves into power. But you saw us as a threat. I’ll admit that you realized how dangerous we are far faster than we thought. But Kings… You have no idea. If you did you would have made very different decisions tonight.”

“You think I couldn’t see what was happening? All these young war heroes taking their place in the Wizengamot. Pushing for changes that we can’t give.” Kingsley slashed his hand down. “Sleuthing around after sessions, all the closed door meetings. I watched the rise of one Dark Lord. I’m not going to sit idly by as another one grows!”

“So you attack us when we are out with the kids? Put my childrens lives at risk for what? The off chance that we fall?” Hermione snapped her teeth inches in front of his face, her hot fetid breath rolling over him. “Tell me, were we meant to die tonight or be captured?”

“It doesn’t matter now does it? You’re both here to kill me and presumably take my place.”

“Oh we won’t be taking your place. That would be too obvious. No, Susan Bones will make a fine minister don’t you think?”  Hermione nodded answering her own question. “Yes, Minister Bones has quite the ring to it.”

Harry dropped his cloak and exploded upward into an eight foot tall black Jaguar. Darker rosettes adorned his plush fur, his eyes remained the same vivid emerald.

“I’d hate to kill you Kings,” the jaguar said coolly, “But you scared my kids and that's unforgivable.”  


End file.
